April 2018 — Don't Be A Putz

I am having lunch with my aunt and she says to me, “Don’t look up, I don’t want the guy who just came in to see us.” I asked her who he is and why don’t you want to see him?” She replies, “He sells to us on the farm and he is a total putz.” Just as she finished the sentence, he approached the table. I was excited as I wanted to see what gave him the title of “putz”.

Here is what made him a putz.

My aunt is not a loud person. Instead of matching his personality to hers, he was just his loud self. You could tell it was annoying her. He needed to read the room and adjust his levels.

He did not make eye contact with her. He looked around the restaurant as she was talking as if to see if there was someone more interesting.

He hit on our very good-looking waitress…with a wedding ring on his finger.

When introduced to me, he shook my hand overly hard and insincerely and did not make eye contact. And then he handed me a business card, which I had not asked for.

He did not pull up a chair, he towered over us the entire time.

When it was time for him to leave, finally, he said goodbye to my aunt and said, “Goodbye Tracy” to me.

Many of us are in the business of relationships and the impression we leave stays with our customers, no matter where they run into us.

If this guy had pulled up a chair, smiled, looked my aunt in the eye, focused only on her, asked a genuine question and remembered my name, it would have been a completely different experience.

Take a minute when you meet people to make sure you leave a non-putz impression.